The Lexicon
The heart qualities
Humility
Humility is the truthful smallness of the self before the vastness of being, the lowering of the ego that opens the door to grace. It is not self-abasement but accuracy, seeing oneself rightly, neither inflated nor diminished. The traditions teach that humility is the soil in which every other virtue can take root, for the proud heart has no room to receive.
Carried by 7 teachers · across 3 traditions · 4 quotes
The Christian mystics make humility the first step of the ladder, the ground of self-knowledge; the contemplatives empty themselves so the divine may fill them. To walk in humility is to set down the burden of being more than one is, to bow before the mystery, and to find in that bowing a strange and spacious freedom.
In their words
Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.Norman Vincent Peale
Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues.Augustine of Hippo
It is a great deal better to do all the things which earn a great reputation, than to have them, without earning them.Thomas a Kempis
Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.Augustine of Hippo